China Blue
Directed by Micha Peled
BEST DOCUMENTARY
MAR DEL PLATA FILM FESTIVAL
DOEN/AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL AWARD
INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL AMSTERDAM
2005
FULL FRAME DOC FESTIVAL
TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
HUMAN RIGHTS FILM FESTIVAL
VANCOUVER FILM FESTIVAL
2005, 86 min
CHINA BLUE takes us on a poignant journey inside a blue-jeans factory, where the working conditions Jasmine and her teenage friends must endure are harsh beyond imagination. They are also unlawful by international standards, and tensions in the factory are running high. So when the factory owner strikes a deal with a Western client and demands around-the-clock production to meet the deadline, a confrontation becomes inevitable. Shot clandestinely in China, under difficult conditions, this is a deep-access account of what both China and the international retail companies don’t want us to see — how the clothes we buy are actually made.
Press
The New York Timesa heartbreaking and meticulous documentary about life inside a blue-jeans factory.
New York PostEye opening........ Peled was harassed at every turn by Chinese officials, but he managed to get this shocking film made. That's just one reason China Blue" is worthy of praise."
Time Out New YorkWhat stands out is the filmmaker's remarkable level of access and the complex portrait of globalization as an intractable beast that relies on consumer complicity in viewing foreign laborers as subhuman. Buy American.
San Francisco ChronicleThe most heartbreaking, moving film in theaters right now is not Babel," "Letters From Iwo Jima" or "Little Children." It is "China Blue," a documentary about sweatshop workers at a denim factory...This is an unforgettable film."
Marin Independent JournalThe film is a unflinching indictment of globalization and the unfettered consumerism that fuels it. The cheap clothes we wear come at a high price, for real people.
San Francisco Bay GuardianNo, this isn't softcore for Asiaphiles. Ducking Chinese government watchdogs (who tried to shut him down several times), Bay Area documentarian Micha X. Peled got unprecendented access to a blue jeans factory in the southern garment-manufacturing city Shaxi thanks to its proud owner, who no doubt has come to regret his decision...It's a verite portrait of adolescents who are instantly recognizable, though their sweatshop environs strike us as nearly unendurable.
Miami HeraldCompelling...gives the phrase sweatshop" a whole different perspective."
The Nationsurprisingly fair-minded....it gives its heart and soul to the girls.
Seattle TimesHeartbreaking yet boldly essential...fairly balanced and richly human.
Seattle PiCommendable in its fair depiction of the problems faced by the textile industry.
The L MagazineA shocking experience.
Film Journal InternationalPeled's film is a must-seeÑif not by the average consumer, then by politicians and U.N. officials.
SF WeeklyThere's a terrible irony, then, to the designer jeans uniformly worn by teenage laborers featured in CHINA BLUE, Micha X. Peled's meticulously livid expose of a sweatshop in Southern China.
The Boston PhoenixThe Best Documentary of Toronto 2005 Micha Peled's China Blue, a heartbreaking, truly unforgettable cin̩ma-v̩rit̩
Daily VarietyPic's degree of access and intimacy is surprising, even more so when closing intertitles reveal Chinese authorities did try to shut down the filmmakers several times.... engaging in character and narrative terms... much of China Blue is charming, because its subjects are... Micha Peled's docu China Blue makes a stronger case against worker exploitation than any news item could...